


Digital Ghost

by Velgamidragon



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: AI Maine, Angst with a Happy Ending, Definitely AU, M/M, Meta Locus, Self-Blame, Survivor Guilt, all three of them blame themselves, but he's dead, carwash siblings, locus is mentioned, mentioned Epsilon incident, season 13, somewhat headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 14:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4525509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velgamidragon/pseuds/Velgamidragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wash took a deep breath. Then another. Then two more. He did not collapse to his knees, no matter how much his body wanted to because he knew he wouldn’t be able to stand back up again.</p><p>Locus was dead.</p><p>Dead wearing <em>Maine’s</em> armor.</p><p>To say <em>nothing</em> of the AI that he'd been using to run it.</p><p>Entirely inspired by this: http://goldpernpendamragon.tumblr.com/post/124618148761/s13-e14</p>
            </blockquote>





	Digital Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this entirely because I love Maine, I miss him, and goddamn, I want him to come back to us in some way in season 13 or later. I also wanted to write some Mainewash that is still angst-ridden, but ends good and happy, and to keep my writing hands still active.

Wash took a deep breath. Then another. Then two more. He did not collapse to his knees, no matter how much his body wanted to because he knew he wouldn’t be able to stand back up again. He forced his fingers to unclench and the battle rifle clattered to the ground. Carolina was somewhere behind him, unusually quiet given the situation. He didn’t know what his older sister was doing and frankly, he didn’t care because his mind was completely occupied by the armored dead man on the ground only a few short meters away.

Locus was dead.

Dead wearing _Maine’s_ armor.

He had no idea how Locus got ahold of it except that it probably involved Charon Industries. He remembered both the horror and the fury he felt when Locus arrived on the battlefield decked out in his lover’s armor.

Interestingly enough, he didn’t feel that anymore. Didn’t feel anything toward the man who obsessed over him either, for that matter.

He remembered the cold, mind-numbing shock that flooded through him when… the AI.

He didn’t feel that anymore either.

He stepped forward, haltingly but deliberately. He heard Carolina begin to move towards him and he threw out his arm in her direction to stop the movement. She did. Wash pressed on. He didn’t stop until he was right next to the armors’ right shoulder and he gingerly knelt down beside the helmet.

Up close and with the time to look at it properly, he realized it was a little different from when he last saw it. It looked more like what Maine wore after his throat was shot out when Sigma was implanted before he got Epsilon. Wash honestly didn’t know if that difference made it any better or not. He bit his lip and hesitantly reached for the familiar EVA helmet locks on the sides along the jawline. He flicked them open and he heard the soft hiss of depressurized air before he removed the helmet. He _knew_ Locus was wearing the armor, but he still did a double-take at the dark-skinned face with the short military crew cut hair beneath it. Even now, even still, despite knowing everything to the contrary, he still half-expected to see Maine’s pale-skinned Asian-faced features.

He shook it off and went to the locks on his own helmet. He removed it swiftly and set it off to the side. Wash automatically brushed his sweaty blond bangs off his forehead and spiked them up before he pulled Locus up to take a look at the back of his head, where his neural implants should be. He saw them at the base of his head and he also saw what he was looking for. The AI. His breath caught in his throat and he forced himself to release it. He reached out and deftly removed the AI from its port. It was a small little thing no bigger than one of his dad’s old USB flash drives before Project Freelancer. But this one, it was far more complex _and_ more important.

His fingers subconsciously gripped the data unit tightly and he breathed “Maine…” in a barely audible whisper.

He could feel his hands shaking slightly. He was scared. God damn, he was terrified, but he was determined. He had to do this. He _had_ to. He had to know… If there was even a chance that… Without another thought, he did something he thought he would never willingly do. He reached around the back of his head and slotted the AI into _his own neural implants._

Carolina screamed, “No! David!” but that was the last thing he heard before he felt the frighteningly familiar rush of icy cold flooding through him from the back of his head and he gasped suddenly. The voice in his head was unmistakable and he hadn’t heard it in years, but it was wrong, all wrong.

//AI… Power… Weapons… Armor…//

It _was_ Maine’s voice in every way, but it sounded _nothing_ like him.

//Power… power… need power… get stronger… find them… find power…//

Wash was horrified and could feel his guilt – the guilt that he’d killed Maine, that he should have realized what Sigma was doing to him, that he could have done something, _anything_ , different to have prevented Maine from becoming the Meta and everything that happened after – resurging quickly like a tidal wave. This… this wasn’t the Meta as he’d dreaded, but worse.

It was… _Maine… Maine_ after he’d set off the E.M.P. and killed all the AIs. _Maine_ with a broken mind, and probably a missing memory, trying to fill the emptiness in his head and unable to prevent himself from following the paths carved into his head by the AIs, the mental scars that were intent on hunting down the AI fragments and acquiring armor enhancements by any means necessary. Wash understood that quite plainly; Epsilon had similarly scarred him when he’d committed suicide in his head and left his own impressions, thoughts, and _memories_ behind.

Wash shut his eyes and clenched his teeth. He’s been _through_ this! He should have _noticed_ , he should have _listened_ , he could have _helped_ him; he was working with the Me- no, with _Maine_ for several weeks and he, David Leonard Church, had done _nothing_. He’d lost Maine and he was the only one to blame.

“Maine,” he pleaded. “I’m sorry. _I’m sorry._ I should have- I didn’t-” his voice choked up and he could feel the AI pause its frantic restless movements. Wash drew a shuddering breath. “Take it. Take everything. You’re an AI and AIs crave knowledge over anything. Knowledge is power, so take it all. Take everything I know.”

The AI did just that and it wasn’t kind. The AI instantly ripped through his head and Wash screamed. He clapped his hands on the sides of his head and bent forward over his knees. He didn’t hear Carolina’s terrified scream and worried words or feel her hands on his shoulders from where she knelt next to him. The only thing he was aware of was the voracious violence of the AI ransacking his mind. The pain was unbearable and Wash could barely stand it! The AI was breaking literally every wall and barrier he’d erected to organize his mind in order to regain, and then keep, his sanity! It was Epsilon all over again!

But right at the moment when he felt like his head was about to explode, the pain receded almost instantly and Wash could feel the AI’s rampage had ended. It was still, not even fidgeting like before. Wash released his head and let his hands fall flat on the ground in front of him, opening his eyes and staring blankly ahead. The AI was still quiet.

Wash bit his lip and then said, very hesitantly, “Maine…?”

Wash felt, rather than saw, the AI – Maine – nod and say //Wash. David.// Wash felt guilt and sorrow in his head that didn’t belong to him. //Sorry… Sorry…//

Wash felt tears spring from his eyes and trail down his cheeks even as a grin split his face upon hearing the words. “Maine!”

“Wash? What’s going on? Are you okay? Wash!” his sister asked worriedly and he reached up to affectionately squeeze her hand resting on his shoulder.

“I’m okay, Carolina. No, I’m better than okay. I’m better than I’ve been in a long time. Maine, please show yourself for my older sister?”

Maine materialized in a flash of white light and both Wash and Carolina noticed that his holographic appearance had changed since they saw him appear next to Locus. Then, he’d worn the last armor Wash had ever seen him wear when he was alive. Now though, the armor had been modified to the version he’d worn before the Sarcophagus mission, before he’d lost his voice, before his and Wash’s relationship had fallen apart because of Sigma’s arrival and internal interference. They swallowed simultaneously.

“Maine?” Carolina began and Wash could hear her voice breaking up as she spoke. “I’m so sorry, Maine. I’m sorry I wasn’t paying enough attention on the freeway and that I wasn’t fast enough to stop that Insurrectionist from shooting you. I’m sorry about Sigma. It’s my fault you became the Meta. You- both of you,” she stared pointedly at Wash and then turned back to the holographic Maine. “-told me that you didn’t need an AI to communicate… that you rarely talked anyway… that Wash had no problem understanding you, even with the injury… and that if you _really_ needed to communicate with words you could either use the textCOM function in our helmets or Morse code. But I didn’t listen. You two were making sense, but I didn’t want to see it. I was consumed by my guilt of letting you get injured and I insisted against your wishes.”

Wash was sure of it now. He couldn’t see her face hidden behind her helmet, but he was certain his sister was crying.

“You eventually smiled and nodded… told me through my brother that you would accept that AI for my sake… to thank me for the gift- that it was an honor-” she broke off and Maine shook his head.

//Not you// Maine said, // Me. Sorry.//

They both gave a start when he disappeared only to jump back when he materialized again, but several times bigger, as a life-sized hologram of Maine. He knelt down in front of them and laid his large hands over theirs. There was nothing to feel from the contact, but they understood the gesture regardless.

Carolina covered Maine’s hand with her other one and cried harder and Wash reached up to Maine’s helmet with his left hand and ‘caught’ the side of his chin. He couldn’t feel anything, but Maine was in his head and could read the nerve impulses in his brain before they even reached his arm and fingers. So when Wash pulled his hand inward to turn Maine’s head towards him, Maine did so and also tilted his head downwards toward Wash at his inclination until his gold-domed visor and Wash’s forehead were pressed together.

Wash began to cry again, but he was still smiling. Maine was back, miraculously and completely unexpectedly. He’d been gone for so long, for so many years because even after he’d fired the E.M.P., the Meta had still not released its hold on him, but here he was now. Different, yes, but still unquestionably Maine and Wash was crying with joy because he’d thought he’d never see him again. His memories had done something good for once instead of just tormenting him with memories of his mother, his family before his father lost himself, the Alpha’s pain and torture, and the friends and loved ones he’d lost. Oh yes, he was a lot better than simply ‘okay’.

**Author's Note:**

> Ever since episode 14 of season 13 confirmed that Maine died because THEY HAVE A CAUSE OF DEATH WHICH MEANS THERE'S A BODY, I CAN'T- I've been thinking that maybe, just maybe Maine might be able to come back as the AI to run the armor. I know I'm not the only person that's thought of it, and this tumblr post pretty much solidified it for me, especially since it also ties in the "refusal of AIs into his neural implants" that was mentioned at the beginning of the season and people have been speculating on ever since.
> 
> I have a vague facecanon idea for Locus, and I like some of the art I've seen on tumblr, but I've never headcanoned him as having long hair, unlike most people, it seems. It doesn't fit in with the "soldier" mentality he's been going for. Yes, I totally copped out of writing the fight scene between Meta Locus, Wash, and Carolina; that wasn't the important part that I really wanted to write (just know that there was an epic fight scene between those three and idk where Felix was at the time - he may have already been dead for all I know)
> 
> Also, I headcanon Maine as Asian (and having grown up on one of the colony worlds, New Llanelli, but that's irrelevant)
> 
> Goddamn, I really want that last scene with Carolina, Wash, and giant hologram Maine as real art.


End file.
